This discourse may be divided into the following parts [1]: The
character and the portion of those who should be in the kingdom
(v. 1-12). Their position in the world (v. 13-16). The connection
between the principles of the kingdom and the law (v. 17-48). [2]
The spirit in which His disciples should perform good works (Matt.
6: 1-18). Separation from the spirit of the world and from its
anxieties (v. 19-34). The spirit of their relation with others
(Matt. 7: 1-6). The confidence in God which became them (v. 7-12).
The energy that should characterise them, in order that they might
enter into the kingdom; not however merely enter, many would seek
to do that, but according to those principles which made it
difficult for man, according to God the strait gate; and then, the
means of discerning those who would seek to deceive them, as well
as the watchfulness needed that they might not be deceived
(v. 13-23). Real and practical obedience to His sayings, the true
wisdom of those that hear His words (v. 24-29).

[1] In the text I have given a division which may assist in a
practical application of the sermon on the Mount. With respect to
the subjects contained in it, it might perhaps, though the
difference is not very great, be still better divided thus: Matthew
5: 1-16 contains the complete picture of the character and position
of the remnant who received His instructions -- their position, as
it should be, according to the mind of God. This is complete in
itself. Verses 17-48 establish the authority of the law, which
should have regulated the conduct of the faithful until the
introduction of the kingdom; the law which they ought to have
fulfilled, as well as the words of the prophets, in order that they
(the remnant) should be placed on this new ground; and the despisal
of which would exclude whoever was guilty of it from the kingdom;
for Christ is speaking, not as in the kingdom, but as announcing it
as near to come. But, while thus establishing the authority of the
law, He takes up the two great elements of evil, treated of only in
outward acts in the law, violence and corruption, and judges the
evil in the heart (22, 28), and at all cost to get rid of it and
every occasion of it, thus showing what was to be the conduct of
His disciples, and their state of soul -- that which was to
characterise them as such. The Lord then takes up certain things
borne with by God in Israel, and ordered according to what they
could bear. Thus was now brought into the light of a true moral
estimate, divorce -- marriage being the divinely given basis of all
human relationships -- and swearing or vowing, the action of man's
will in relationship to God; then patience of evil, and fulness of
grace, His own blessed character, and carrying with it the moral
title to what was His living place -- sons of their Father who was
in heaven. Instead of weakening that which God required under the
law, He would not only have it observed until its fulfilment, but
that His disciples should be perfect even as their Father in heaven
was perfect. This adds the revelation of the Father, to the moral
walk and state which suited the character of sons as it was
revealed in Christ. Matthew 6. We have the motives, the object,
which should govern the heart in doing good deeds, in living a
religious life. Their eye should be on their Father. This is
individual. Matthew 7. This chapter is essentially occupied with
the intercourse that would be suitable between His own people and
others -- not to judge their brethren and to beware of the profane.
He then exhorts them to confidence in asking their Father for what
they needed, and instructs them to act towards others with the same
grace that they would wish shown to themselves. This is founded on
the knowledge of the goodness of the Father. Finally, He exhorts
them to the energy that will enter in at the strait gate, and
choose the way of God, cost what it may (for many would like to
enter into the kingdom, but not by that gate); and He warns them
with respect to those who would seek to deceive them by pretending
to have the word of God. It is not only our own hearts that we have
to fear, and positive evil, when we would follow the Lord, but also
the devices of the enemy and his agents. But their fruits will
betray them.

[2] It is important however to remark that there is no general
spiritualisation of the law, as is often stated. The two great
principles of immorality amongst men are treated of (violence and
corrupt lust), to which are added voluntary oaths. In these the
exigencies of the law and what Christ required are contrasted.

The revelation of the Father's name

There is another principle that characterises this discourse,
and that is the introduction of the Father's name. Jesus puts His
disciples in connection with His Father, as their Father. He
reveals to them the Father's name, in order that they may be in
relation with Him, and that they may act in accordance with that
which He is.

The rejection of the King; consequent position and conduct of His followers

This discourse gives the principles of the kingdom, but supposes
the rejection of the King, and the position into which this would
bring those that were His; who consequently must look for a
heavenly reward. They were to be a divine savour where God was
known and was dealing, and would be a spectacle to the whole
world. Moreover this was God's object. Their confession was to be
so open that the world should refer their works to the Father. They
were to act, on the one hand, according to a judgment of evil which
reached the heart and motives, but also, on the other, according to
the Father's character in grace -- to approve themselves to the
Father who saw in secret, where the eye of man could not
penetrate. They were to have full confidence in Him for all their
need. His will was the rule according to which there was entrance
into the kingdom.

The discourse pronounced in Israel before the kindgom is set up

We may observe that this discourse is connected with the
proclamation of the kingdom as being near at hand, and that all
these principles of conduct are given as characterising the
kingdom, and as the conditions of entrance into it. No doubt it
follows that they are suitable to those who have entered in. But
the discourse is pronounced in the midst of Israel [1], before the
kingdom is set up, and as the previous state called for in order to
enter, and to set forth the fundamental principles of the kingdom
in connection with that people, and in moral contrast with the
ideas they had formed respecting it.

[1] We must always remember that, while dispensationally Israel
has great importance, as the centre of God's government of this
world, morally Israel was just man where all the ways and dealings
of God had been carried out so as to b ring to light what he
was. The Gentile was man left to himself as regards. God's special
ways, and so unrevealed. Christ was a light, to reveal the
Gentiles, Luke 2: 32.

The beatitudes: the character and portion of those in the kingdom

In examining the beatitudes, we shall find that this portion in
general gives the character of Christ Himself. They suppose two
things; the coming possession of the land of Israel by the meek;
and the persecution of the faithful remnant, really righteous in
their ways, and who asserted the rights of the true King (heaven
being set before them as their hope to sustain their hearts)
[1].

[1] The characters pronounced blessed may be briefly noted. They
suppose evil in the world, and amongst God's people. The first is
not seeking great things for self, but accepting a despised place
in a scene contrary to God. Hence mourning characterises them
there, and meekness, a will not lifting up itself against God, or
to maintain its position or right. Then positive good in desire,
for it is not yet found; hungering hence and thirsting after it,
such is the inward state and activity of the mind. Then grace
towards others. Then purity of heart, the absence of what would
shut out God; and, what is always connected with it, peacefulness
and peace-making. I think there is moral progress in the verses,
one leading to the next as an effect of it. The two last are the
consequences of maintaining a good conscience and connection with
Christ in a world of evil. There are two principles of suffering,
as in 1 Peter, for righteousness' and Christ's sake.

The disciples' position in the world

This will be the position of the remnant in the last days before
the introduction of the kingdom, the last being exceptional. It was
so, morally, in the days of the Lord's disciples, in reference to
Israel, the earthly part being delayed. In reference to heaven, the
disciples are looked at as witnesses in Israel; but -- while the
only preservative of the earth -- they were a testimony to the
world. So that the disciples are seen as in connection with
Israel, but, at the same time, as witnesses on God's part to the
world (the kingdom being in view, but not yet established). The
connection with the last days is evident; nevertheless their
testimony then had, morally, this character. Only the establishment
of the earthly kingdom has been delayed, and the church, which is
heavenly, brought in. Matthew 5: 25 evidently alludes to the
position of Israel in the days of Christ. And in fact they remain
captive, in prison, until they have received their full
chastisement, and then they shall come forth.

The obedient man, the Lord from heaven

The Lord ever speaks and acts as the obedient man, moved and
guided by the Holy Ghost; but we see in the most striking manner,
in this Gospel, who it is that acts thus. And it is this which
gives its true moral character to the kingdom of heaven. John the
Baptist might announce it as a change of dispensation, but his
ministry was earthly. Christ might equally announce this same
change (and the change was all-important); but in Him there was
more than this. He was from heaven, the Lord who came from
heaven. In speaking of the kingdom of heaven, He spoke out of the
deep and divine abundance of His heart. No man had been in heaven,
excepting Him who had come down from thence, the Son of man who was
in heaven. Therefore, when speaking of heaven, He spoke of that
which He knew, and testified of that which He had seen This was the
case in two ways, as shown forth in Matthew's Gospel. It was no
longer an earthly government according to the law; Jehovah, the
Saviour, Emmanuel, was present Could He be otherwise than heavenly
in His character, in the tone, in the essence, of His whole
life?

The character of Christ identified with heaven

Moreover, when He began His public ministry and was sealed by
the Holy Ghost, heaven was opened to Him. He was identified with
heaven as a man sealed with the Holy Ghost on earth. He was thus
the continual expression of the spirit, of the reality, of
heaven. There was not yet the exercise of the judicial power which
would uphold this character in the face of all that opposed it. It
was its manifestation in patience, notwithstanding the opposition
of all around Him and the inability of His disciples to understand
Him. Thus in the sermon on the Mount we find the description of
that which was suitable to the kingdom of heaven, and even the
assurance of reward in heaven for those who should suffer on earth
for His sake. This description, as we have seen, is essentially the
character of Christ Himself. It is thus that a heavenly spirit
expresses itself on earth. If the Lord taught these things, it is
because He loved them, because He was them and delighted in
them. Being the God of heaven, filled as man with the Spirit
without measure, His heart was perfectly in unison with a heaven
that He perfectly knew. Consequently therefore He concludes the
character which His disciples were to assume by these words: "Be ye
therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." All
their conduct was to be in reference to their Father in heaven.
The more we understand the divine glory of Jesus, the more we
understand the way in which He was as man in connection with
heaven, the better shall we apprehend what the kingdom of heaven
was to Him with regard to that which was suitable to it. When it
shall be established hereafter in power, the world will be governed
according to these principles, although they are not, properly
speaking, its own. The remnant in the last days, I doubt not,
finding all around them contrary to faithfulness, and seeing all
Jewish hope fail before their eyes, will be forced to look upward,
and will more and more acquire this character, which, if not
heavenly, is at least very much conformed to Christ.*

{*Those who are put to death will go up to heaven, as Matthew 5:
12 testifies, and the Apocalypse also. The others, who are thus
conformed to Christ, as a suffering Jew, will be with Him on Mount
Sion; they will learn the song which is sung in heaven, and will
follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth (on earth). We may also
remark here, that in the beatitudes there is the promise of the
earth to the meek, which will be literally fulfilled in the last
days. In verse 12 a reward in heaven is promised to those who
suffer for Christ, true for us now, and in some sort for those who
shall be slain for His sake in the last days, who will have their
place in heaven, although they were a part of the Jewish remnant
and not the assembly. The same are found in Daniel 7: only, remark,
it is the times and laws which are delivered into the beast's
hands, not the saints.}

The multitude, and the Lord's power and character

There are two things connected with the presence of the
multitude, v. 1. First, the time required that the Lord should give
a true idea of the character of His kingdom, since already He drew
the multitude after Him. His power making itself felt, it was
important to make His character known. On the other hand, this
multitude who were following Jesus were a snare to His disciples;
and He makes them understand what an entire contrast there was
between the effect which this multitude might have upon them, and
the right spirit which ought to govern them. Thus, full Himself of
what was really good, He immediately brings forward that which
filled His own heart. This was the true character of the remnant,
who in the main resembled Christ in it. It is often thus in the
Psalms.

The salt of the earth and the light of the world

The salt of the earth is a different thing from the light of the
world. The earth, it appears to me, expresses that which already
professed to have received light from God -- that which was in
relationship with Him by virtue of the light -- having assumed a
definite shape before Him. The disciples of Christ were the
preservative principle in the earth. They were the light of the
world, which did not possess that light. This was their position,
whether they would or no. It was the purpose of God that they
should be the light of the world. A candle is not lighted in order
to be hidden.

Men's opposition to the establishment of the Kingdom

All this supposes the case of the possibility of the kingdom
being established in the world, but the opposition of the greater
part of men to its establishment. It is not a question of the
sinner's redemption, but of the realisation of the character proper
to a place in the kingdom of God; that which the sinner ought to
seek while he is in the way with his adversary, lest he should be
delivered to the judge -- which indeed has happened to the
Jews.

Relationship with the Father: prayer in dependence

At the same time the disciples are brought into relationship
with the Father individually -- the second great principle of the
discourse, the consequence of the Son being there -- and a yet more
excellent thing is set before them than their position of testimony
for the kingdom. They were to act in grace, even as their Father
acted, and their prayer should be for an order of things in which
all would correspond morally to the character and the will of their
Father. "Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,"* is, that all
should answer to the character of the Father, that all should be
the effect of His power. "Thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven" is perfect obedience. Universal subjection to God in heaven
and on earth will be, to a certain point, accomplished by the
intervention of Christ in the millennium, and absolutely so when
God shall be all in all. Meanwhile the prayer expresses daily
dependence, the need of pardon, the need of being kept from the
power of the enemy, the desire of not being sifted by him, as a
dispensation of God, like Job or Peter, and of being preserved from
evil.

{*That is, the Father's. Compare Matthew 13: 43.}

The special application of 'The Lord's prayer'

This prayer also is adapted to the position of the remnant; it
passes over the dispensation of the Spirit, and even that which is
proper to the millennium as an earthly kingdom, in order to express
the right desires, and speak of the condition and the dangers of
the remnant until the Father's kingdom should come. Many of these
principles are always true, for we are in the kingdom, and in
spirit we ought to manifest its features; but the special and
literal application is that which I have given. They are brought
into relationship with the Father in the realisation of His
character, which was to be displayed in them by virtue of this
relationship, causing them to desire the establishment of His
kingdom, to overcome the difficulties of an opposing world, to keep
themselves from the snares of the enemy, and to do the Father's
will. It was Jesus who could impart this to them. He thus passes
from the law,* recognised as coming from God, to its fulfilment,
when it shall be as it were absorbed in the will of Him who gave
it, or accomplished in its purposes by Him who alone could do so in
any sense whatever.

{*The law is the perfect rule for a child of Adam, the rule or
measure of what he ought to be, but not of the manifestation of God
in grace as Christ was, who in this is our pattern -- a just call
to love God and walk in the fulfilment of duty in relationship, but
not an imitating of God, walking in love, as Christ has loved us
and given Himself for us.}

The beginning of the Lord's testimony in the midst of Israel

Then, in Matthew 8, the Lord begins in the midst of Israel His
patient life of testimony, which closed with His rejection by the
people whom God had so long preserved for Him, and for their own
blessing. He had proclaimed the kingdom, displayed His power
throughout the land, and declared His character, as well as the
spirit of those who should enter the kingdom.

The character of the Lord's miracles

But His miracles,* as well as the whole Gospel, are always
characterised by His position among the Jews and God's dealings
with them, till He was rejected. Jehovah, yet the man obedient to
the law, foreshowing the entrance of the Gentiles into the kingdom
(its establishment in mystery in the world), predicting the
building of the church or assembly on the recognition of His being
Son of the living God, and the kingdom in glory; and, while
detecting as the effect of His presence the perversity of the
people, yet bearing on His heart with perfect patience the burden
of Israel.** It is Jehovah present in goodness, outwardly one of
themselves: wondrous truth!{*The miracles of Christ had a peculiar character. They were not
merely acts of power, but all of them of the power of God visiting
this world in goodness. The power of God had been often shown
specially, from Moses, but often in judgment. But Christ's were all
the deliverance of men from the evil consequences sin had brought
in. There was one exception, the cursing the fig tree, but this was
a judicial sentence on Israel, that is, man under the old covenant
when there was great appearance but no fruit.}

{**I subjoin here some notes, made since this was written, as
throwing, I think, light on the structure of this Gospel. Matthew
5-7 gives the character required for entrance into the kingdom, the
character which was to mark the accepted remnant, Jehovah being now
in the way with the nation to judgment. Chapters 8, 9 give the
other side -- grace and goodness come in, God manifest, His
character and actings, that new thing which could not be put into
the old bottles -- still goodness in power, but rejected, the Son
of man (not Messiah) who had not where to lay His head. Matthew 8
gives present intervention in temporal goodness with power. Hence,
as goodness, it goes beyond Israel, as it deals in grace with what
was excluded from God's camp in Israel. It includes power over all
Satan's power and sickness and the elements, and that in taking the
burden on Himself, but in conscious rejection. Matthew 8: 17-20
leads us to Isaiah 53: 3, 4, and the state of things calling for
the wholly following Him, giving up all. This leads to the sad
testimony that, if divine power expels Satan's, the divine presence
manifest in it is insupportable to the world. The swine figure
Israel thereupon. Matthew 9 furnishes the religious side of His
presence in grace, forgiveness, and the testimony that Jehovah was
there according to Psalm 103, but there to call sinners, not the
righteous; and this was especially what could not suit the old
bottles. Finally, this chapter practically, save the patience of
goodness, closes the history. He came to save Israel's life. It was
really death when He came: only, wherever there was faith in the
midst of the surrounding crowd, there was healing. The Pharisees
show the blasphemy of the leaders: only the patience of grace still
subsists, carried out towards Israel in Matthew 10, but all found
to be of no avail in Matthew 11. The Son was revealing the Father,
and this abides and gives rest. Matthew 12 develops fully the
judgment and rejection of Israel. Matthew 13 brings Christ as a
sower, not seeking fruit in His vineyard, and the actual form of
the kingdom of heaven.}

The healing of the leper: God manifest in grace and goodness

First of all, we find the healing of a leper. Jehovah alone, in
His sovereign goodness, could heal the leper; here Jesus does
so. "If thou wilt," says the leper, "thou canst." "I will," replies
the Lord. But at the same time, while He shows forth in His own
Person that which repels all possibility of defilement -- that
which is above sin He shows the most perfect condescension towards
the defiled one. He touches the leper, saying, "I will, be thou
clean." We see the grace, the power, the undefilable holiness of
Jehovah, come down in the Person of Jesus to the closest proximity
to the sinner, touching him so to speak. It was indeed "the Lord
that healeth thee."* At the same time He conceals Himself, and
commands the man, who had been healed, to go to the priest
according to the ordinances of the law and offer his gift. He does
not go out of the place of the Jew in subjection to the law; but
Jehovah was there in goodness. {*One who touched a leper became
himself unclean, but the blessed One did come thus close to man,
but removed the defilement without contracting it. The leper knew
His power, but was not sure of His goodness. "I will" declared it,
but with a title which God only has to.}

Sovereign grace to a Gentile

But in the next case we see a Gentile, who by faith enjoys the
full effect of that power which his faith ascribed to Jesus giving
the Lord occasion to bring out the solemn truth, that many of these
poor Gentiles should come and sit down in the kingdom of heaven
with the fathers who were honoured by the Jewish nation as the
first parents of the heirs of promise, while the children of the
kingdom should be in outer darkness. In fact the faith of this
centurion acknowledged a divine power in Jesus, which, by the glory
of Him that possessed it, would (not forsake Israel, but) open the
door to the Gentiles, and graft into the olive-tree of promise
branches of the wild olive-tree in the place of those which should
be cut off. The manner in which this should take place in the
assembly was not now the question.

He does not however yet forsake Israel. He goes into Peter's
house, and heals his wife's mother. He does the same to all the
sick who crowd around the house at even, when the sabbath was
over. They are healed, the devils are cast out, so that the
prophecy of Isaiah was being fulfilled: "Himself took our
infirmities and bare our sicknesses." Jesus put Himself in heart
under the weight of all the sorrows that oppressed Israel, in order
to relieve and heal them. It is still Emmanuel, who feels for their
misery and is afflicted in all their affliction, but who has come
in with the power that shows Him capable of delivering them.

Conscious rejection

These three cases show this character of His ministry in a clear
and striking manner. He hides Himself; for, until the moment when
He would show judgment to the Gentiles, He does not lift up His
voice in the streets. It is the dove that rests upon Him. These
manifestations of power attract men to Him; but this does not
deceive Him: He never departs in spirit from the place He has
taken. He is the despised and the rejected of men; He has nowhere
to lay His head. The earth had more room for the foxes and the
birds than for Him, whom we have seen appear a moment before as the
Lord, acknowledged at least by the necessities which He never
refused to relieve. Therefore, if any man would follow Him, he must
forsake all to be the companion of the Lord, who would not have
come down to the earth if everything had not been in question; nor
without an absolute right, although it was at the same time in a
love which could only be occupied by its mission, and by the
necessity that brought Him there.

The storm permitted for the trial of faith and to manifest Christ's dignity

The Lord on earth was everything or nothing. This, it is true,
was to be felt morally in its effects, in the grace which, acting
by faith, attached the believer to Him by an ineffable
bond. Without this, the heart would not have been morally put to
the test. But this did not make it the less true. accordingly the
proofs of this were present: the winds and waves, to which in the
eye of man He seemed to be exposed, obeyed His voice at once -- a
striking reproof to the unbelief that woke Him from His sleep, and
had supposed it possible for the waves to engulf Him, and with Him
the counsels and the power of Him who had created the winds and
waves. It is evident that this storm was permitted in order to try
their faith and manifest the dignity of His Person. If the enemy
was the instrument who produced it, he only succeeded in making the
Lord display His glory. Such indeed is always the case as to
Christ, and for us, where faith is. Now the reality of this power,
and the manner of its operation, are forcibly proved by that which
follows.

Divine power expels Satan's power; the divine presence insupportable to the world

The Lord disembarks in the country of the Gergesenes. There the
power of the enemy shows itself in all its horrors. If man, to whom
the Lord was come in grace, did not know Him, the devils knew their
Judge in the Person of the Son of God. The man was possessed by
them. The fear they had of torment at the judgment of the last day
is applied in the man's mind to the immediate presence of the Lord:
"Art thou come to torment us before the time?" Wicked spirits act
on men by the dread of their power; they have none unless they are
feared. But faith only can take this fear from man. I am not
speaking of the lusts on which they act, nor of the wiles of the
enemy; I speak of the power of the enemy. Resist the devil and he
will flee from thee. Here the devils wished to manifest the reality
of this power. The Lord permits it in order to make it plain, that
in this world it is not merely man that is in question whether good
or bad, but that also which is stronger than man. The devils enter
into the swine, which perish in the waters. Sorrowful reality
plainly demonstrated that it was no question of mere disease or of
sinful lusts, but of wicked spirits! However, thanks be to God, it
was a question also of One who, although a man on earth, was more
powerful than they. They are compelled to acknowledge this power,
and they appeal to it. There is no idea of resistance. In the
temptation in the wilderness Satan had been overcome. Jesus
completely delivers the man whom they had oppressed with their evil
power. The power of the devils was nothing before Him. He could
have delivered the world from all the power of the enemy, if that
only had been in question, and from all the ills of humanity. The
strong man was bound, and the Lord spoiled his goods. But the
presence of God, of Jehovah, troubles the world even more than the
power of the enemy degrades and domineers over mind and body. The
control of the enemy over the heart -- too peaceful, and alas! too
little perceived -- is more mighty than his strength. This
succumbs before the word of Jesus; but the will of man accepts the
world as it is, governed by the influence of Satan. The whole city,
who had witnessed the deliverance of the demoniac and the power of
Jesus present among them, entreat Him to depart. Sad history of the
world! The Lord came down with power to deliver the world -- man --
from all the power of the enemy; but they would not. Their distance
from God was moral, and not merely bondage to the enemy's
power. They submitted to his yoke, they had become used to it, and
they would not have the presence of God. I doubt not that that
which happened to the swine is a figure of that which happened to
the impious and profane Jews who rejected the Lord Jesus. Nothing
can be more striking than the way in which a divine Person,
Emmanuel, though a man in grace, is manifested in this
chapter.